Practiced in the Dark Arts of Public Relations, they steer careers out of seemingly fatal nose dives and pull torched reputations from the ashes of public spectacle. They know that America frowns on sex scandals but smiles at redemption stories.

Now these crisis-management experts are watching what happens with San Diego Mayor Bob Filner as accusations of sexual harassment — and calls for his resignation — swirl around him.

So far, the fixers haven’t been impressed.

“If Filner’s problem was more conventional — medical, alcohol, financial — a forgiveness strategy might be feasible,” said consultant Eric Dezenhall. “The hardest thing to overcome, though, is ridicule, and that’s where this is going.”

Dezenhall is the co-author of “Damage Control: The Essential Lessons of Crisis Management,” one of a growing number of books devoted to the subject amid a steady stream of meltdowns by politicians, celebrities and even common folk who accidentally hit “send all” on a snarky office email.

He’s based in Washington D.C., also home to crisis queen Judy Smith, the inspiration for the main character on the ABC series “Scandal,” a political thriller full of intrigue and betrayal. Fixers like to operate in the shadows, but how shadowy can they be when their work is featured on network TV?

“People tend to see damage control in cinematic terms — Machiavellian spin doctors with great powers,” Dezenhall said. “This is fiction.”

The reality is far less glamorous. It’s tense meetings with people who are in trouble and maybe in denial — about what they’ve done, and about what needs to be done. Somebody has to point out when the emperor has no clothes.

In crisis management, the focus is on the managing, not the crisis. The crisis is already here. Sometimes managing it means finding a way to part the waters of scandal. Sometimes it means making sure everybody knows how to swim.

According to consultants, there is no set playbook for this kind of thing because every sin, every personality, every political situation is different. Sexual harassment allegations aren’t the same as visits with a prostitute or affairs between consulting adults.

But there are general guidelines, and almost everybody agrees with the mantra of Mike Sitrick, a famous Los Angeles fixer: “If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.”

First things first

Getting out in front of the news is crucial, fixers say. That enables you to drive the conversation, which is especially important in the always-on world of the Internet.

“Things can turn either which way in mere seconds on social media,” said Melissa Agnes, president of Melissa Agnes Crisis Management in Montreal. “One new angle, one new anything and all of a sudden it can spiral out of control.”

Two years ago, when former-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger learned the media was looking into reports he’d fathered a child with the family maid, he issued a press statement confirming it.

Late-night comics still told their jokes, but many of the early newspaper and Internet headlines used words like “Arnold admits” and that helped defuse the public clamor.